Tuesday, April 19, 2016

DOCTOR’S APPOINTMENT FOR AL THIS MORNING

It's not often I go anywhere without Pheebs but I had an 8:30 Doctor's appointment this morning in Clinton & not knowing how long the waiting time might be I decided to take a chance & venture out on my own. It was cold & cloudy anyway & cloudy days rarely inspire me to do anything other than hang around the house so wasn’t planning on a Jeep drive anyway. Doctor’s appointment was for the results of a PSA test. Numbers are up a wee bit but the Doc says it’s nothing to worry about. Checked my prostrate & said I’m good for another 6 months until my next check-up:))

NOTICED THIS FARMER ON HIS LAND EARLY THIS MORNING

For some unknown reason I completely ran out of energy by noon today. Maybe our return to colder weather overnight had something to do with it. I don't think we made it out of the 40's today. Looking back I see it was a month ago this morning on our way home we had the driver's side front tire blow out on the Jeep just a few miles west of Albuquerque NM. We were eastbound on I-40 towing the Jeep behind the Motorhome at the time. 'Blow-Out' And it was a year ago today Pheebs & I took our 06 Jeep Wrangler for her last country road drive. 'Our Last Drive' Just a couple days later on April 22 Kelly & I drove over to Elmira Ontario & brought our 07 Jeep Liberty home. ‘Bringing Libby Home’ My how time flies.

SPOTTED A FEW FARM HOUSES ON MY WAY TO & FROM THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE

THREE PHOTOS OF THE SAME HOUSE….FIRST & LAST PHOTOS WERE TAKEN ON MY WAY TO THE DOCS & THE CENTER PHOTO WAS TAKEN ON THE WAY BACK

I remember when we had our Jeep Wrangler I thought we would never ever sell it because I liked it so much. Of course I should have known better because I don't think I've ever kept a vehicle longer than 5 years. I never did reach a point where I didn't like the Wrangler but we did reach a point where we both wanted a vehicle with more room inside, 4 doors instead of 2, A/C, & a smoother ride. Exit the Wrangler & enter the Liberty.

APRIL 22ND 2015 THE DAY WE BROUGHT LIBBY HOME:))

I was leery of the Liberty at first not knowing if it would be able to go places the Wrangler could go in the Southwest. I needn't have worried & this past winter proved the Liberty was every bit as good at going places the Wrangler was. And in fact it does it much more comfortably. I like the automatic transmission as well & how nice to have power windows making it so much easier for me to take photos on the go. A touch of a button lowers the passenger side window instead of me having to lean across the seat & hand crank the window down after seeing a photo coming up on the right hand side. Much easier for me to get my sometimes very stiff legs in or out & how great to have a couple back seat doors for Pheebs to hop in & out of as well. And the much bigger space behind the back seat is a real bonus for sure. All & all I think it's a pretty swell little car & hopefully we'll hang on to this one for a few years just as we did the Wrangler. Five to be exact:))

OH-OH LOOKS LIKE BERT LOST HIS CONTACT LENS AGAIN

Been nearly a month since we've been back home in Bayfield so am I getting antsy to hop in the RV & head off somewhere yet?? Nope, not at all. Still happy to be back home here in Canada puttering around the yard & slipping out with Pheebs on our country road drives. Just as in Congress Arizona this past winter it is those short outings 3 & 4 times a week that has gone a long way in keeping this restless traveling nature of mine under control.

Hauled out my camera tripod & mounted my Nikon D-90 on it this morning. To this camera in succession I affixed my oldest Nikkor 55-200mm lens, 18-250mm Sigma lens, & my older problematic 70-300mm lens. Fully zoomed I focused each lens on a distant subject & took one picture. Sharpest photo came from my Nikkor 55-200 lens so that is now the telephoto lens I will use until at some time I can get myself another Nikkor 70-300mm lens. George in a comment question wondered about getting the 70-300 lens fixed. I went down that road last September inquiring at Henry’s Camera Store in London about having the lens repaired. With the way it is set up at Henry’s camera store to send the lens off to Nikon plus repair I was looking at a probable cost of about $250+ & the lens could be gone for up to 8 weeks. I could buy a completely refurbished like new lens for that price or less so the repair route is not really my best option. I now have my Sigma lens mounted on my D-40 & that will be my ‘at home go for a walk around the trail’ set up. My 18-55 Nikkor lens is on my D-90 & my 55-200 lens is on my D-3100 & it will be those last 2 cameras & lenses that will travel around with me. Okay, that’s about enough of all this camera & lens talk for awhile so let’s move on eh:))

L TO R --- NIKKOR 55-200, SIGMA 18-250, NIKKOR 70-300

Been noticing something about my aging self over these last number of years & especially this past year. I am becoming more & more a solitary person & I am finally beginning to feel more & more comfortable with that. When I am by myself I am a happy guy & when I am around people I am stressed. So if & when I feel a need for a people fix I just go take a 10 minute walk around Walmart & I'm good to go again. Nobody talks to me & I talk to nobody. No pressure, no expectations, no worries, no stress:))

OOOOPS, LOOKS LIKE I FORGOT TO TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE THIS MORNING

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Some Corny Stuff:

Q: What did one eye say to the other eye?

A: Something smells between us!

Q: What is the difference between a Hippo and a Zippo?

A: A Hippo is really heavy, but a Zippo is a little lighter!

Q: What is the difference between a poorly dressed man on a tricycle and a well dressed men on a bicycle?

A: Attire!

Q: Why are movies stars so cool?

A: Because the have a lot of fans.

Q: What do you get when you cross a fish with an elephant?

A: Swimming trunks!

Singing in the shower is all fun and games until you get soap in your mouth. Then it becomes a soap opera.

8 comments:

It was much cooler today but we had lotsa sunshine here so was nice to be outside all day, Too bad about the repairs, makes more sense to replace it and sell the old one if you can.We too have always prefered the solitary lifestyle. Many times if gets to be way over the top for us.

I find myself craving me time more and more. However I do enjoy an occasional get together with folks. And a one on one is okay. But I am finding those times to be fewer and fewer. I posted a short update on Rod today.

It was 96 here in our desert yesterday. We had to turn on the air conditioner. Same for today.Hubby is becoming more like you, Al. He hates crowds and prefers to just be by himself. That's fine with me. I like to be alone, too.~Cheryl Ann~

AL'S CAMERA EQUIPMENT

A sometimes asked question readers have about my blog is what kind of a camera do I use. Well I have 8 of them and use them all. Five Nikon DSLR's, two quality Sony point and shoots plus one older Canon point and shoot.

'UPDATE':: July 2017 Thanks to a very generous blog reader I have been able to update my Nikon camera equipment and supplement my camera gear with a couple additional fine Sony cameras as well.I now have a 'donated' Nikon D7200 sporting my new Nikkor 18-300 3.5 zoom lens. Also have picked up a new Nikkor 1.8 primary 35mm lens. In addition I also now have a Sony RX100-3 camera as well as a Sony Exmore Cybershot. I have given my Canon Powershot point and shoot camera to a neighbor.

- In early 2017 I replaced my Nikon D-90 camera with a new D-3400 after the 'auto focus' feature on my aging D-90 quit working. The Nikon D-90 had been my work horse camera sporting a Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 lens. I used this camera for most of my landscapes and I now have it set up for night photography where 'auto focus' is not necessary.

-My older faithful and favorite Nikon D-40 finally packed it in during the summer of 2015 and I replaced it with a new Nikon D-3100.

- Previous to my Nikon D-90, most of my photos were taken with my old faithful Nikon D-50 from 2006 to early 2011 whereupon the D-50 suffered a rather gruesome death when it fell off a table onto a cement porch in southeastern Arizona. The 70-300mm lens on the camera survived the fall but the D-50 did not. My Nikkor lenses are interchangable between the D-90 the D-3100 and the D-3400.